Up A Creek Without A Paddle
by Jazzy Shepard
Summary: I bought an Original Character from a friend of mine that doesn't use her anymore. I have a few artwork from her and the character sheet to work from. I wanted to just test out her character in her past form for fun. So this is a little one shot of John and Arthur as teens with Danny Van Der Linde as a child. John loosed his paddles for his boat.


"So, what do we do?" Danny asked with crossed arms. Her black hair was long and wavy like her fathers. Two dark brown eyes looking out from her small child face. Black and red skirts flowed from her hips with a plain white button up shirt folded to her elbows.

"Go and get him I guess." Arthur scratched the back of his neck. His face held the patchy stubble of his teen years. Blond hair was grown out to hang below his ears with two green eyes looking out from the scraggly bangs that were always cut at the wrong angle. Brown boot kicked dust onto his black jeans. Red shirt lay with the first two buttons undone.

They stood at the edge of a lake. It wasn't a very big lake, but it was deep. The perfect fishing spot for most days. Ducks swam around in panic as the boat in the middle of the lake shook with ferocity. Arms waving in a panic from within.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" John bellowed across the water. He was sweating under the sweltering summer sun. His black shirt and jeans didn't much help him. Long black hair was already sprayed with water from his struggling. Blue eyes locked onto the two standing at the edge of the water.

"Pa is gonna get mad if I ruin these skirts. He just bought them." Danny whined from her spot. Arthur's hand moved to his lips to hide the smile under it.

"Guess I have to do it then." Arthur shrugged dropping his satchel, "And here I thought we were gonna have a peaceful day. But nooo…" Danny snickered as Arthur moved to take off his boots, "Marston had to get himself stuck in the middle of the damn lake. Couldn't be bothered to learn how to swim." He huffed and lobbed the boots somewhere behind him, "COULD YA!?"

"WHAT?!" John yelled back. He quirked his head to the side. Danny placed her small hands to her mouth and giggled.

"I could go get pa." Danny offered kicking the basket at her feet, "You hurry up, my tummy's grumblin' somethin' fierce."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. You told me twenty times on the walk down here." Arthur shook his head, "Between you and John I think I've gone insane. And don't tell Dutch. It's our secret. Look you can have all the sweets. I'm sure John won't mind."

Danny didn't hear anything after the words sweets and opened the basket to chow down on the candy Arthur had bought. Her tiny fingers shoved them into her mouth by the fistful. Arthur was already swimming out to the boat.

"I thought you were gonna leave me in here." John panicked and held onto the edge, "I about fell in."

"You almost fell in because you're scramblin' around like a maniac!" Arthur grabbed onto the rope at the front of the boat and started swimming backwards to drag it back to shore.

Danny eyed the water and rubbed her sticky face, "Watch out!" She screamed seeing something floating to the boys. It was long dark and heading right for them, "SNAKE!"

"Be careful water snakes are… agh!" John felt the boat shift as Arthur tried to pull himself into it.

"Stay still!" Arthur hooked his leg over to the side. John lost his footing and fell into the water. His hands splayed out as he splashed like a maniac, "John stop it!"

John grabbed onto Arthur's shoulders and pushed him under to get enough leverage to break the surface. Arthur pushed John over to get a breath of his own, "John!" splash, "Seriously!" splash, "STAND UP!"

John placed his feet onto the ground and found that he was able to stand with the water up to his shoulders. Something bumped into his shoulder causing him to yell out. He turned ready to fend off a snake to see a large stick bobbing in the water, "It was just a stick." Arthur rolled his eyes and snatched the stick from John. He lobbed it as far away as he could.

"Let's get out of the water." Arthur grumbled lowly. He took the rope and started heaving the boat onto land followed by John wobbling to keep standing in the water. Once feet hit the mud Arthur let himself fall onto his back in exhaustion, "I just wanted one damn day to relax, that's all I wanted."

"You can relax now. Here, Saved you one." Danny palmed a little piece of candy. It had grown sticky in her hand, but Arthur took it gingerly and placed it into his mouth.

"Thank you, Princess." He smiled softly up to her.

"Do I get one?" John asked a little hopefully.

"Nu uh, I ate the rest. Sorry." But Danny was anything but sorry. John rolled his eyes but gave her a laugh.

"Do you want to eat now?" Arthur asked the smiling Danny from where he lay panting. John shook his head and sprayed her with water. She jumped and covered her face against the cold onslaught.

"No, I'm full now." She replied happily.

"Of course, you are." He sighed and laid his head back down.

* * *

"So, how'd the picnic go?" Dutch asked as the trio returned. He raised an eyebrow at the water-soaked Arthur and John. Danny had taken his attention as the girl ran up to her father and wrapped her arms around his hips.

"John got stuck in the lake and Arthur helped him. I got to eat all the sweets because it's a secret. You're not supposed to know!" Dutch laughed and picked his daughter up to set on his hip.

"Is that so?" He asked moving to tickle her tummy. She squealed and kicked in his arms, "You aren't very good at keeping secrets." When her feet hit the ground, he placed a simple kiss to the crown of her head, "Go on inside, I got you something from town." Danny squealed in joy before kicking off into the house.

Dutch looked at John and Arthur who were trying their hardest to slink away, "So you got yourself stuck?"

John stood up and shrugged with his hands out, "I wouldn't say that…"

"It was more like he lost the paddles to the boat." Arthur moved behind John.

"So you could say… You were lost up shit creek without a paddle?" Dutch raised an eyebrow at the boys, "No? How about justice is a dish best served cold, if it were hot it would be justwater."

"Look at what you did." Arthur hissed at John.

"I didn't do it, Danny did!" John groaned.

"Nothing? What did the lake say to the other lake? Nothing it just waved." Dutch chuckled at himself, "How about this one. Why doesn't water laugh at jokes? It doesn't like dry humor." John and Arthur tried to cover their ears as dad mode had been fully activated.


End file.
